Triallists Ryan Tongue and Alex Simpson are included in the Worcestershire Seconds side for the four-day friendly against Surrey Seconds at Kidderminster starting tomorrow (10.30am start).
Tongue is the elder brother of County paceman Josh Tongue and is a batsman who plays for Barnards Green in the Birmingham League.
He has been in prolific form and scored successive centuries against Bromsgrove (116), Himley (121) and Leamington (133) to top 1,000 runs for the season.
Paceman Simpson has played for Duham at Second Eleven level and from Under-13s through to Under-17s and this season represented Northumberland in Minor Counties cricket.
He turned out for the Academy in two matches during the past fortnight, returning 2-35 against Staffordshire Seconds and then 3-84 and 1-20 versus Northamptonshire in a Tri-Series match.
Second Eleven coach Kevin Sharp said: “A lot of the Academy lads are back at school and it is an opportunity to take a look at one or two people.”
The Seconds will be taking on Surrey for the first time in several years to complete a trio of four-day fixtures after the conclusion of the Second Eleven Championship.
Sharp said: “Surrey got in touch towards the end of last season and asked if we would be interested in playing this fixture.
“It is always good to play some of your friendly matches against teams from the south. We tend to do a lot of that.
“The Second Eleven Championship finished for us in the first week of August and it still leaves a fair amount of time for the remainder of the season.
“I just thought it would be a good idea to fix up three four-day games which mirror the first eleven. It was an ideal time of the year to be able to do that.
“We’ve performed better as a group in the Second Eleven Championship as opposed to the friendly games but it is swings and roundabouts.
“We’ve been playing some of our Academy players who have been off school in this period and there have been some glimpses of some real talent in there that we knew we’ve got.
“Some of these lads are very young and they are just going to take a little time to bed in and gain the consistency that we are looking for.
“They are all ‘competitive’ games whether in the Championship or if classed as friendlies. Every game is important and you aproach every game with the same mentality.”
Paceman and Academy member Dillon Pennington returns to the side after a shoulder injury.
Seconds:
Westbury
RyanTongue
Dell
Hepburn
Whiteley
Milton (w)
Malik
Twohig
Pennington
Morris (c)
Simpson
12th man: AWoods
